my mind on ignorance
a little friday free flow from my heart and mind to yours
a world that holds us all
no lines of separation
no boxes of suffocation
all beings able to move freely
no matter their location
no more bondage
no more oppression
no more false hope
we are talking about progression
moving into something better than
and bigger than and brighter than
what it is we think we know
check in with self hypocrisy
check in with self identity
check in with all your disconnection
is that truly you?
and all you were born to do?
the limits within me
recognizing the limits within you
we can hide behind pride
we can subside our shames
yet, the Soul always knows
and moves us towards
that most sweetest of refrains
if we can change and learn to rearrange
our own guilts, shadows and blames
into that which only love can name
that’s the work of creating
a new way of being
where all can breathe
show up, and remain
honoring our differences
and remembering
we’re all the same
( my mind on ignorance )
Ignorance is an interesting thing. To me, it is the belief that I know it all, that I have it all, that there is not a single thing I could, can, or have ignored—as well as the very awareness and action that I am. In simplicity, it is not looking at the very truths right in front of me. I think of the Oreo cream pie that is like kryptonite to me. If I eat the whole thing, which I often do, but don’t look at the grams of sugar or the calories ingested or the very facts presented to me on the label and box, well then, in my mind, it doesn’t count. That, to me, is my own ignorance. This is a very simplistic example of my own degree of not looking or not knowing, and without any shame for when I do eat the whole pie—because a girl deserves to eat—it just serves as a gentle way of sharing how this practice of ignoring, being ignorant itself, shows up in its many degrees and varieties.
I find it interesting too that in our world I grew up hearing the words “ignorance is bliss” and find it to be anything but. I find it interesting that we are fed those webs and narratives, and how they weave into our day-to-day lives as though it is absolutely more than okay to not look, not ask, not seek, not admit just how much we do not know, for that in itself will lead to bliss, to joy, to serenity.
More and more, I find myself detoxing from these unsolicited shares as well as very purposefully paying attention to how they show up in micro and macro ways. I dare to challenge all of us to really contemplate the notion that our ignorance could in any way cultivate bliss, ease, or add to our enjoyment. And I can feel my own eyes rolling in the back of my head like, "Uh, yes, Keri, of course there are people out there, minds out there, behavior patterns out there, that do believe bliss is bound if we just ignore," and yet I do believe it is not real. It could not stand. It will not sustain if we continue to choose to see only that which we want to see and believe only that which we want to know. To know of my own ignorance is to know of my own humility, my own shadows, my own limits, and to love myself so profusely that I will do all I can to stretch beyond and allow more to be shown.
In yoga, there are ethical practices, and without these ethical practices, there is no yoga. Yoga itself is the entirety, the unity, the whole of who we are and who we are to one another, with compassion as the very lead and truth so closely following. In the ethical practices and principles, there are the kleshas, and these are our relationships with suffering itself, offering us insight and reflection to work our way through the challenge of struggle, the obstacles of illusion, and the very practice of really asking oneself: What have I ignored? Forgotten? Clung to? And more.
There are five kleshas, but today, in the theme of ignorance itself, I share with you the first, and that is avidya—our aversion to ignorance, our relationship with ignorance, our very challenges with ignorance. When we choose not to turn on the light, we obviously won’t be able to see that which is trying to so clearly be in front of us. If I surround myself with the same, same, same, I will more than likely always, always, always get the same results. Isn’t that what they fed us as insanity itself? And yet, in the next breath, reassured us that bliss would be the byproduct? I don’t know about you, but I want to learn how to have more of a loving and just relationship with my ignorance. I want to call it in and allow where I place the barriers, the bias, the all-too-deeply embedded beliefs, to be met with questions, curiosity, and the hopeful expansion of learning beyond that which I think I know.
Avidya offers us that route by simply becoming aware of the ways we think we know. What if we don’t? What if we’re wrong? And what if there’s always more to the story, the self, and the shared collective?
Ignorance also feels like the mind’s stuff, the trickery of our thoughts bypassing the brilliance of our hearts, our wisdom, our souls. So much of what we are saturated in right now as people on this shared planet and in this shared time is mind stuff, ego stuff, ideas that produce hierarchy and harm. What if the very dissolve of our own ignorance begins in the return to the heart? To the human and empathy for this experience—radical empathy, in fact—so we can return and reroute from our own humanity? What if we could trust the sensations of our very spirit, which I believe and feel just wants to grow, just wants to know, and just wants to show up and show us all that it can and must be done? What if we finally ensured that which is in us, a part of us, no longer could or would be ignored? Maybe, just maybe, we would dissolve and heal a whole lotta suffering… maybe, just maybe, we would know a little more peace.
Feels like true bliss if you ask me.
Opposition is not dangerous. Disagreement is not dangerous. Not knowing is not dangerous. The danger comes when we halt on one side and one side only, when we believe we are right and they are wrong, and there is no more to know. Danger comes when we really believe we have it all figured out, for when that happens, we distance, defend, and disregard all the innate and interconnected wisdom we are a part of. And in this very real time of right here, right now, we are living it, we are breathing it, we are participating in it—both you and me. And without guilt, shame, or the need to shrink, let us use it, let us learn from it, let us open our eyes and minds and hearts and look and see—outward as well as in.
What are we ignoring?
What is just calling to us to feel, to sense, to see?
And I share all of this with you humbly, for I know nothing. Yet, in all I don’t know, I am open to everything in the Divine light. And in that openness to Divinity and all Its guidance, I do know It has shared with me time and time again just how on time and on purpose we are in this moment. Each of us is here and now to do our part, to awaken our peace, to let the lights shine so brilliantly and brightly as never before so we can see. See our hurt, see our heart, see our shared humanity.
What if all this chaos and suffering was just the waking point to let ignorance go and let bliss breathe?
And what if we knew we were capable, strong, Sacred, and ever so ready?
This is my mind on ignorance.
Thank you for being in the mess and magic alongside me.